Boron steel has long been used in the automotive industry and is, among other things, significantly stronger than regular metal. This brings challenges; for instance, cutting the material is a relatively time-consuming job. A new laser technology offers a solution and makes cutting boron steel up to a thousand times faster, without losing accuracy. The technology thus offers opportunities for the automotive industry.
In boron steel is a steel alloy containing boron, which makes the steel harder than regular steel. For this reason, the material is widely used in the automotive industry to produce chassis, which it makes extra strong. However, due to its strength, boron steel is difficult to cut or shape. It is possible to cut boron steel with a plasma torch, but this heats up the metal to a temperature of 650ºC and allows less precision than using a pulsating laser.
PULSE consortium
The High-Power Ultrafast Lasers using Tapered Double-Clad Fibre (PULSE) project is therefore developing a new laser technology to cut boron steel faster and more efficiently. The project is an initiative of Photonics 21, a European technology platform uniting several parties from the photonics industry. The project will receive funding of €5.2 million from the European Horizon 2020 programme.
The PULSE consortium involves several parties:
Universities and colleges
- Aston University (United Kingdom)
- Hochschule Mittweida (Germany)
Companies
- Ampliconyx (Finland)
- Ceram Optec (Latvia)
- LUNOVU (Germany)
- Nanotypos (Greece)
- Onostampi (Italy)
- Prime Laser Technology (Greece)
Research institutes
- Modus Research and Innovation (United Kingdom)
- Centro Ricerche Fiat (Italy)
- Foundation for Research and Techology Hellas (Greece)
100kW in a single pulse
Work is underway within PULSE on a new pulsed laser technology with an average power of 2.5kW or 100kW in a single pulse. This pulse can be transmitted at a frequency of up to 1GHz, which is a thousand times more than the current limit of 1MHz. At 1GHz, up to one million pulses are sent per second. The technology sends the laser pulses so fast that they are measured in femtoseconds. One femtosecond is a trillionth of a second.
Because the laser system is considerably more powerful, the new laser technology enables boron steel to be cut significantly faster than is possible with currently available technology. This presents opportunities. For example, Photononics 21 expects that the use of the new precision laser can reduce the number of products that are rejected and therefore need to be destroyed by 10%, which has a positive impact on the environment. It can also cut chassis production time by two-thirds and reduce production costs by 5%.
Moulds with micron-level accuracy
The system makes it possible to control laser pulses very precisely. This accuracy allows moulds for manufacturing automotive parts to be formed with micron-level accuracy. Laser technology can also be used to micro-weld different types of metals for solar thermal collectors.
The consortium expects to have a prototype available by 2021 that can cut boron steel with the new laser technology.
Author: Wouter Hoeffnagel
Source: PULSE
Source: Photonics 21
